SANS NewsBites is a semiweekly high-level executive summary of the most important news articles that have been published on computer security during the last week. Each news item is very briefly summarized and includes a reference on the web for detailed information, if possible.

Spend five minutes per week to keep up with the high-level perspective of all the latest security news. New issues are delivered free every Tuesday and Friday.

--Threat Hunting & Incident Response Summit & Training | New Orleans, LA | April 12-19, 2016 | Will you be the hunter or the prey? Two days of Summit talks and 6 courses; including the new FOR578 Cyber Threat Intelligence course. http://www.sans.org/u/dgM

--SANS OnDemand lets you train anytime, anywhere with four months of online access to your course. Learn more: http://www.sans.org/u/Xy Plus Scottsdale, Munich, Tokyo, Anaheim, Philadelphia, and London all in the next 90 days. For a list of all upcoming events, on-line and live: http://www.sans.org/u/XI

According to a recent report, 85 percent of critical vulnerabilities in Windows last year could have been mitigated by eliminating administrator rights. Nearly all critical flaws affecting Internet Explorer (IE) could have been mitigated with the same action. -http://www.zdnet.com/article/most-windows-flaws-mitigated-by-removing-admin-rights-says-report/[Editor's Note (Pescatore): I have to make the usual observation about vendor reports showing that their product area solves problems, but: Version 6 of the Critical Security Controls moved Controlled Use of Admin Privileges from #12 in V5 up to #5 in V6. Reducing admin rights to the bare minimum number of people and even limiting the scope of admin rights for those with legitimate business need isn't that hard to do anymore - way less pushback from management and business users who really aren't installing much software (other than malware...) on their work PCs anymore. The app battles have moved to mobile devices. (Murray): We continue to have too much administrator and root ID and password sharing. We end up with limited to no accountability over the most sensitive acts. (Weatherford): I've long advocated for flashing lights and alarms any time an Admin account is created or changed. (Ranum): I would title this one: "85% of computer security breaches are self-inflicted; root cause analysis is stupidity and laziness." (Honan): This is not really a new story, a report published in 2009 states that 92% of critical vulnerabilities would be mitigating by reducing the privileges for users on their systems (-http://www.zdnet.com/article/report-92-of-critical-microsoft-vulnerabilities-mitigated-by-least-privilege-accounts/) and this guide from the NSA in 2013 also recommends reducing the use of local admin accounts. The use of local admin accounts is a prime example of how ease of use wins out over security. Microsoft has published some guides on how to manage this issue. -https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc700846.aspx and -http://blogs.technet.com/b/rhalbheer/archive/2010/12/05/mitigating-the-use-of-local-admin.aspx]

A cybercrime analyst from Barclays bank will join experts from industry, academia, and law enforcement at INTERPOL's Cyber Fusion Centre in Singapore. The Barclays analyst will be the first representative from the financial sector at the Centre, which "provides a neutral, global platform for law enforcement, the private sector, and academia to work collaboratively, sharing actionable threat information and developing operational responses." -http://www.zdnet.com/article/bank-joins-interpol-cyber-crime-fighting-centre/-http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2016/N2016-017[Editor's Note (Honan): This is a good move and this merging of domain expertise should improve information sharing flows between the financial sector and law enforcement. ]

John Pescatore was Vice President at Gartner Inc. for fourteen years. He became a director of the SANS Institute in 2013. He has worked in computer and network security since 1978 including time at the NSA and the U.S. Secret Service.

Shawn Henry is president of CrowdStrike Services. He retired as FBI Executive Assistant Director responsible for all criminal and cyber programs and investigations worldwide, as well as international operations and the FBI's critical incident response.

Suzanne Vautrinot was Commander of the 24th Air Force (AF Cyber) and now sits on the board of directors of Wells Fargo and several other major organizations.

Ed Skoudis is co-founder of CounterHack, the nation's top producer of cyber ranges, simulations, and competitive challenges, now used from high schools to the Air Force. He is also author and lead instructor of the SANS Hacker Exploits and Incident Handling course, and Penetration Testing course.

Michael Assante was Vice President and Chief Security Officer at NERC, led a key control systems group at Idaho National Labs, and was American Electric Power's CSO. He now leads the global cyber skills development program at SANS for power, oil & gas and other critical infrastructure industries.

Mark Weatherford is Chief Cybersecurity Strategist at vArmour and the former Deputy Under Secretary of Cybersecurity at the US Department of Homeland Security.

Stephen Northcutt teaches advanced courses in cyber security management; he founded the GIAC certification and was the founding President of STI, the premier skills-based cyber security graduate school, www.sans.edu.

Dr. Johannes Ullrich is Chief Technology Officer of the Internet Storm Center and Dean of the Faculty of the graduate school at the SANS Technology Institute.

William Hugh Murray is an executive consultant and trainer in Information Assurance and Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Sean McBride is Director of Analysis and co-founder of Critical Intelligence, and, while at Idaho National Laboratory, he initiated the situational awareness effort that became the ICS-CERT.

Rob Lee is the SANS Institute's top forensics instructor and director of the digital forensics and incident response research and education program at SANS (computer-forensics.sans.org).

Tom Liston is member of the Cyber Network Defense team at UAE-based Dark Matter. He is a Handler for the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center and co-author of the book Counter Hack Reloaded.

Jake Williams is a SANS course author and the founder of Rendition Infosec, with experience securing DoD, healthcare, and ICS environments.

Dr. Eric Cole is an instructor, author and fellow with The SANS Institute. He has written five books, including Insider Threat and he is a founder with Secure Anchor Consulting.

Mason Brown is one of a very small number of people in the information security field who have held a top management position in a Fortune 50 company (Alcoa). He leads SANS' efforts to raise the bar in cybersecurity education around the world.

David Hoelzer is the director of research & principal examiner for Enclave Forensics and a senior fellow with the SANS Technology Institute.

Gal Shpantzer is a trusted advisor to CSOs of large corporations, technology startups, Ivy League universities and non-profits specializing in critical infrastructure protection. Gal created the Security Outliers project in 2009, focusing on the role of culture in risk management outcomes and contributes to the Infosec Burnout project.

Eric Cornelius is Director of Critical Infrastructure and ICS at Cylance, and earlier served as deputy director and chief technical analyst for the Control Systems Security Program at the US Department of Homeland Security.

Alan Paller is director of research at the SANS Institute.

Brian Honan is an independent security consultant based in Dublin, Ireland.

David Turley is SANS operations manager and serves as production manager and final editor on SANS NewsBites.

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